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Putin Speaks after Ordering Troops into Separatist-Held Parts of Ukraine; Russian Official: No Troops in Ukraine's Donbas Republics "For Now"; White Deputy National Adviser: This is the Beginning of an Invasion; Biden Facing Bipartisan Calls for Stronger Action Against Russia. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired February 22, 2022 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Thank you all so much for being here this hour. I'm Kate Bolduan. "Inside Politics" with John King starts right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Hello, everybody, and welcome to "Inside Politics". I'm John King in Washington thank you for your time on this very busy breaking news day.

We begin the hour in Ukraine and with a White House search for the right words and the best sanctions. We heard moments ago from the Russian President Vladimir Putin. We will hear from the President of the United States, Joe Biden, next, hour. A top aide to the president today saying what Putin is doing right now equals, "The beginning of an invasion".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN FINER, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Now we think this is yes, the beginning of an invasion, Russia's latest invasion into Ukraine, how much and how many of these costs are they willing to endure to continue down this path toward invasion of Ukraine? That's a question only they can answer.

But invasion is an invasion. And that is what is underway. But Russia has been invading Ukraine since 2014. I don't know how much more clearly I can be Brianna. This is the beginning of an invasion. I am calling it innovation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: As we wait to hear directly from the president, how you define invasion or beginning of invasion has huge international significance. The president of course, promised swift and severe sanctions should Russia invade? Already American and European officials are scrambling back and forth over how to respond a big move by Germany today.

It will not certify a Russian energy pipeline, the United Kingdom now sanctioning Russian banks, the European Union promises a new sanctions package as well. And the one o'clock event with the president will include the announcement of additional U.S. sanctions; CNN has reporter's correspondents on the frontlines of this story around the globe.

Let's begin at the White House with our Chief Correspondent Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, we will hear from the president in an hour. What do we expect?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the White House is going to lay out the sanctions that they are imposing on Russia in response to this, which they have said we'll be aggressive though, John, it's still not clear exactly what we are going to see today.

And so President Biden is expected to announce that when he speaks in about an hour from now, the first time we have heard from President Biden, since President Putin took these brazen steps yesterday, which the White House, the Secretary of State, other international leaders have said, is a blatant violation of international law and of course, those agreements that they had in place since 2014.

And so what you'll hear from President Biden today is talking about these sanctions, which we are told will be on Russia. But the big question that remains is how extensive they are. Because you're right, the White House has been in this position since yesterday of not going as far as to call this an invasion last night when they were briefing reporters on their response to that fiery speech delivered by Putin yesterday.

But then today, saying that this is the start of an invasion and invasion is an invasion, talking about the fact that there have been Russian forces in these regions for the last several years now and of course, the question of whether or not there are going to be new Russian forces there. And what the response to that is?

The challenge for the White House here, John, is that how do they respond to this without letting those actions by Putin yesterday go unpunished while still leaving some options on the table? If Russia does go further into Ukraine, if you do see them take the capital, which of course you've heard a tear at the White House warn about that is going to be the position that they find themselves in.

And that is what we are waiting to hear from President Biden, when he does speak on this at about 1 pm this afternoon.

KING: Kaitlan Collins kicking us off in the White House I appreciate the live reporting. Let's take it now straight to Moscow CNN's Nic Robertson. Nic, just moments ago, we heard from Vladimir Putin, what did we learn? NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: We learned that he thinks all this can be solved if Ukraine quite simply says it doesn't want to join NATO anymore. Then he said everyone can go back to sleeping in their bed safely at night. Of course, Ukraine is not about to do that. They've been very clear.

NATO has got an open door policy they can join they want to join. That's what Putin sees at the moment. He understands that he is and continues today to create a narrative for a context for a further use of potential use of force against Ukraine.

He said, and this, again, I should caveat is without, without substance and foundation, he said that Ukraine wants to develop nuclear weapons and that these weapons would be so close to Moscow, they would be a strategic threat. He is in essence laying out the case for the potential use of further force against Ukraine.

He denied that Russia is putting forces into the separatist areas already. His officials today have been ambiguous about that saying that it hasn't been called for so far. The NATO Secretary General says very clearly, Russia has put forces in those separatist areas.

Yet while all that goes along, President Putin is going through the legal process of getting permission from his government, which is going to rubber stamp his request to allow him to put Russian forces into those separatists areas indeed use them outside of Russia, which leaves the door open to use them in other parts of Ukraine as well John.

KING: Nic Robertson important live reporting for us from Moscow. Nic thanks so much. Let's go straight to Kyiv now CNN's Matthew Chance. Matthew here in the United States, they say the beginning of an invasion tell us what is look like on the ground? What do we know about Russian troop movements inside Ukraine?

[12:05:00]

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, big concern here in Ukraine right now tonight John is that this recognition by Russia yesterday, of those two separatists Republic's in the East of Ukraine, that could be the pretext could be the start of a much bigger sort of military campaign.

The reason for that is very simple, which is that the areas that the rebels actually hold and control are much smaller than the territories they claim, as legitimately. There's some confusion is that Nic Robertson saying that they're in Moscow from the Kremlin, about what the Moscow and what the Kremlin is recognizing?

Is it recognizing just the territory they control now? Or is it saying, look, we recognize this sort of extended territory, the concern being, of course, that that had been recognized by Moscow, they're feeling emboldened, perhaps they'll have Russian tanks backing them up as well, they could reopen that conflict zone in the east of the country and take on bite into even more Ukrainian territories. That's sort of like a really bad sort of, perhaps not the worst case scenario, but very bad scenario that is being actively considered in the Ukrainian capitals. Now, there's concerns though, that being expressed the back that by Ukrainian officials, they know that is a real risk, but they are saying that at this stage, they are committed to a diplomatic process.

That is what Volodymyr Zelensky the Ukrainian President who spoke about this earlier this morning, had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: We are dedicated to the peaceful diplomatic solution. And we will follow this and only this path. We are on our land. We are not afraid of anybody and anything. We owe nothing to anybody. And we will not give anything to anyone. And we are confident about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHANCE: Well, more ominous reports as well being observed here in in Ukraine about the movement of Russian forces, there are lots of strange movements taking place in those Republic's that have been recognized by Russia, unmarked military vehicles, some of them tanks, some of them armored vehicles, it's not clear whether they are fresh Russian forces or not. But that is the next big escalation. There's been watched for very carefully indeed John.

KING: Matthew Chance grateful for live reporting for you and all of our team inside Ukraine. Appreciate it very much. Let's get some very important perspective now from Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey. He's the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Mr. Chairman, grateful for your time on this important day! Now the president is going to speak a little over 50 minutes from now, I'm going to assume the White House has reached out to the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and told him giving him a heads up of what sanctions are coming. Are they going to be tough enough to satisfy your test?

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-NJ): Well, I look forward to what the president has to say. I think they need to be severe sanctions. I think we can stop equivocating as to whether we have an invasion or not. I think the West; the United States has to make it very clear to Putin that the consequences begin now.

And for me, that means taking, for example, the waivers off on Nord Stream. So that's definitely dead eyed means sanctioning Russian banks. It means sanctioning Russian oligarchs that are holding Putin's monies. It also means sanctioning Russian sovereign debt.

Those are just some of the beginning salvos that I think we need to be done. And I hope it will be done multilaterally, because unless the West, this time, acts resolutely, strongly and decisively, we will have repeats of 2008 and 2014 with Putin. KING: Right. And that this time is key in the sense that Putin can look at the map, and he keeps taking bites of the apple bites of other people's land and getting away with it. And so he thinks I'm going to get away with it again.

They won't have the patience to hold out a couple questions on that point. To one you just heard Kaitlan Collins saying there's a debate inside the White House; do you do a giant package now? Or do you do an aggressive package that would save a few things? So you tell Putin, if you'd go any further, there will be addition?

Do you think they should just put the whole package on it now that say you have crossed the line? It's not an issue of just the separatist areas; you're done, big package or hold something?

MENENDEZ: Well, I think you should use the overwhelming amount of it now. You may reserve something like what I call the mother of all sanctions, unplugging Russia from the Swift, the financial system, you know, but at the end of the day, when is it that we're going to be clear to Putin that there are severe consequences for what you doing when he takes the bite after this bite?

I mean, we've even forgotten that for the most part, he's overtaken Belarus already. It may have been known the "Invitation" of Belarus' President, but he's taken over Belarus. And so the bottom line is, you need to be overwhelming in the response to that at the end of the day, he understands there's real consequences otherwise he will continue to calibrate in a way that he thinks he can get away with.

KING: You heard our reporters Nic Robertson in Moscow saying they haven't sent any new troops in to those separatist areas as yet. Our Matthew Chance reporting from Kyiv, there has been movement of some vehicles around you has access to intelligence that we don't get to see. Are there more Russian troops across the border in Ukraine today than there were yesterday?

[12:10:00]

MENENDEZ: Well, I can't talk about intelligence but I will say this, I am convinced that there are more Russian forces today than they were yesterday. And we have to stop with playing with the idea that irregular forces those that may not have the Russian patch on them, ultimately means they're not Russian they are.

And at the end of the day, it's been very clear; Putin has told the world what he's going to do. He's told he's going to recognize these areas, that next thing is annexation of these areas. And then he's going to do that, by force.

I don't know what we need to wait for, you know, what we can have here is another Munich moment. And the West has to decide whether it's going to allow a mark where more and more European land is going to be taken over by force, or whether the West is going to stand up to Putin.

KING: And let's stick there, and then expand the context, if you will. The NATO Secretary General today saying he views this as the greatest security moment in a generation. This is not just about Putin trying to reestablish to the Great Mother, Russia, as he sees it in his mind.

But President Xi is watching as well. And there are many people around the world who think what happens here? What happens in the next days, weeks and months in this showdown with Putin over Ukraine, could affect the future of Taiwan and other places as well, right?

MENENDEZ: That's a great point, John absolutely. Look, I have always said that authoritarian leaders in different parts of the world; look at what the United States Europe and the West does. Does it respond meekly? Or does it respond, you know, powerfully?

When it responds meekly, then it emboldens authoritarian figures in the world like Xi and Taiwan, or the situation in Iran, or so many other places, here in our own hemisphere. The bottom line is, they're going to be looking and saying, this is the way the United States response, this is the way that your response, this is the Europe response, this the way EU response.

Well, then I can get away with it. And I can sustain myself, despite whatever they do, because what they do is not significant enough. And that's what the real question is here, first and foremost, as it relates to Ukraine, and Europe, but it is a global impact as well.

KING: We'll wait to see what the president has to say at the top of the hour on this important day grateful Senator Bob Menendez, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, grateful for your time, sir, we'll keep in touch.

MENENDEZ: Let's do it.

KING: Thank you. Next, Putin's first move is on Eastern Ukraine, but Russian forces are poised for other possible attacks as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

KING: Today what the White House calls the beginning of an invasion, but what Vladimir Putin does next and what a full-fledged Russian assault would look like, remain open questions? With me to share his expertise and his insights our CNN military Analyst, Colonel Cedric Leighton Colonel, it's great to see you today.

So here's the map at play the highlighted areas here this is Crimea, which Putin took seven years ago, eight years ago now and has kept annexed. Here, the separatists regions where he said let's bring it up closer like this. Putin said yesterday that he recognizes these as independent new states.

And so the question is new Russian troops crossing in the highlighted areas, you know this well, these have been controlled by the separatists for years. If Russian troops only go into here, it's essentially more Russian troops but the status quo the issue is, what about here there are Ukrainian troops out here the shelling periodically, what do you look for?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: So what I'm looking for is a change John in in this kind of status quo, if he does nothing but stay in this area, not much of a change. And that's I think; where the White House has had this problem with what do you call this? Is this an invasion? Or is this incursion? Or is this nothing new?

I think it is something new because it's recognizing the status of these States as being basically Russian satellites. But what I'm looking for from a military perspective is for the Russians to come in down here or over this way.

And what they would do if they attack this territory that is controlled by Ukrainian forces right now, this is the line of demarcation between Russian separatists and Russian forces, and on this side and Ukrainian forces here. If they come in and try to take these areas of Luhansk or Donetsk, then that spells trouble and that would be an acceleration of the entire war effort, and really would show that Putin is bent on moving forward into at least this point.

KING: And so if this is the immediate front, the immediate issue, if you will, that's what you're watching the current days, I just want to come back out to the bigger map here because you make an important point. Putin took Crimea eight years ago. Now, he says, now it's annexed by Russia. Do you think right in here, this is a strategic play by Putin? He wants this and into here why?

COL. LEIGHTON: Because he wants to make the Sea of Azov which is this body of water right here into a Russian Lake number one. Number two, he may want to try to take at least Eastern Ukraine, Ukraine, this divided by Dnieper River that is a convenient --

KING: Let's bring it up this way. Here we go.

COL. LEIGHTON: --convenient east west dividing point of Ukraine, large proportion of the population is Russian speaking here, which fits into Putin's narrative. I've got to protect the Russian speaking population. These part more Ukrainian, less of a concern to Putin.

However, he may want to take that as well, because if we pay attention to what he said in his speech yesterday, he believes that Ukrainians are really Russians, and he doesn't see any difference between Ukrainians and Russians.

KING: And so if he wanted to take out the Zelensky government headquartered in Kyiv, he has Russia has a lot of troops here, you in studying the scenarios. Do you think there's some sort of a surround Kyiv plan?

COL. LEIGHTON: Exactly. Because what they're doing here is they've got their concentrations, not only in Russia, but in Belarus right here. This is a perfect place to poise invasion forces. And what he could do is he you could come down this way this way and this way and basically what you're talking about is a pincer movement in and around Kyiv.

[12:20:00] COL. LEIGHTON: And if he does that the idea would be to decapitate in metaphorical terms the Ukrainian government. Now, of course, he's got that list reportedly where he has all the Ukrainian politicians, all the Ukrainian intelligentsia, anybody who would potentially oppose a Russian effort. That list would be activated if you took Kyiv.

KING: And so if you're talking about NATO troops at the moment, U.S. and NATO troops, they're all out here.

COL. LEIGHTON: That's right.

KING: They're all out here. And they're watching. They're watching. Essentially, this is a message to Putin, you're not coming here. But what happens in here, obviously, there's more U.S. military assistance going in more European military assistance going in and help with the Ukrainian military. What to you are the most important things to watch in the next 74, 7200 hours?

COL. LEIGHTON: So in the next 7200 hours, John, we're going to be seeing as an increase in reconnaissance flights by U.S. aircraft, over Ukrainian aerospace, they've been doing it for a while using both drones, as well as manned aircraft.

So you're talking the rivet joint, which is a mandate platform as well as the Global Hawk, which is an unmanned drone, which flies over this area and watches this not only for us, but eventually for the Ukrainians as well.

So then what else we're going to see is the readiness level of U.S. forces in both Poland and Romania, especially because we have the highest concentration of American forces in these two countries. U.S. forces are poised right about here, in a place called --, that is the scene of a major battle in World War One.

That particular place is part of what they call the blood lands of Europe. And this area right here has been fought over for centuries, what Putin talked about in terms of it being rightfully Russian. Well, that's questionable, because the Pols could claim it the Lithuanians could claim it, and frankly, the Ukrainians can claim it.

KING: Colonel Leighton I appreciate your perspective. We'll continue the conversation as we watch this play out in the hours and days ahead. Up next for us, we continue crisis management Biden style, the President promises more Russia sanctions, and works to keep the European allies on the same page.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

KING: President Biden is due to outline new sanctions against Russia in about 35 minutes. He promised swift and severe punishment if Russia's Vladimir Putin sent new troops into Ukraine. And there was bipartisan pressure now on the White House for a very aggressive sanctions package. Beyond the sanctions debate this crisis of course, a major global test for the president. With me now to share the reporting and their insights Margaret Talev of "AXIOS" Julie Hirschfeld Davis of "The New York Times" and CNN's Natasha Bertrand. Margaret, let me start with you. The European Union has agreed on a package of sanctions.

The German Chancellor came up quickly and said we are suspending putting on hold the very important of Vladimir Putin, Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. Now it's the President of the United States, the leader of the will of the Western world. The question is how tough?

MARGARET TALEV, MANAGING EDITOR, AXIOS: That is the big question, we'll all be listening for that at one o'clock, the White House yesterday and then today sort of tried to clean it up, seem to be leaving space to say, you know, those sanctions might ratchet up?

You know, they're not - it's not clear whether Putin is like invaded. Now today they're like it's an invasion, but the beginning of an invasion. What they seem to be doing is two things number one, trying to make sure that the rest of Europe that the Western allies are with them before they get out too far ahead, right?

Disunity would be even worse than not moving forward. And then the second piece is it seemed that they were trying to calibrate like, if you go hardcore with the sanctions now, does it just give Putin the predicate? To say, well, I, you left me no choice but to invade. I think like that ship has sailed now. And that the issue is trying to make sure that the U.S. and Western allies are moving in lockstep.

KING: But part of the challenge is to your reporting on the planning, if they see this sustained effort by Putin, who he plays the long game, he does not care about the 24 hour news cycle. And so if they see this sustained effort that starts maybe in the separatists areas, but then moves on to somewhere else, and maybe, maybe we're weeks and months waiting, and perhaps then some assaults on Kyiv.

Does the administration want to keep some stick, if you will, in reserve? That's the debate, or do you have all the punishment you have now just put it out for Putin and say, do not dare?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, the political pressure, obviously, is to impose it all right now, because what we've been seeing and hearing from the White House is that this is an invasion that they have started to move into Donbas, that is what they're saying.

The NATO Chief is saying that they have started seeing overt military operations taking place there in eastern Ukraine. But the White House says no, we still do need that stick, because, for example, if they were to move on Kyiv, which is what the White House has been warning is a possibility as part of Russia's plans, then they need to reserve the full kind of strength of the worst possible sanctions and financial penalties that the U.S. and the West can impose collectively.

The part of the problem though, is that this is going to have to go in waves and that is something that the Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer has said this morning to Briana Keeler, actually, he said, this is going to be incremental in terms of how Russia moves.

So we're going to be watching Russia's moves on the ground as they progress. And we will be responding accordingly. Now, the question that they have not yet answered is what is the line for that invasion? At what point do the Russian forces actually have to cross a certain line in Ukraine for the U.S. to say this is it this is what we've been watching for and waiting for?

KING: And so to that point, we're going to hear from the president. He's going to not only unveil the new sanctions, he's going to give his update on what he sees on the situation on the ground and obviously the president has access to intelligence that no one else does. So we'll hear from the president the question is will he stick to this standard?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We will hold Russia accountable for it --

(END VIDEO CLIP)